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–The Ottawa Sun‘s Don Brennan writes about last night’s win (link), where Paul MacLean talks about the contributions of his third line, “They did a good job. They played real hard tonight. When players are playing hard, you have to reward them with an opportunity. They’ve been killing penalties for us and doing a real good job. Just felt we had to give them an opportunity on the power play and see what they could do.”

–Senators Extra‘s Allen Panzeri writes about David Rundblad (link), with Paul MacLean saying “I think that was displayed the other night [Sunday] with the confidence he had after missing (the previous five games). Just because you’re not playing doesn’t mean you don’t learn about the league and what’s going on, so I think he’s used his time wisely.” Rundblad said “It was tough when I (was scratched for five games in a row), because you want to be playing. But my confidence is getting higher with every game I play. “I’m just trying to play my game and keep my head up.” The think as long as Rundblad remains confident he’ll stay in the line-up.

–SenShot‘s Jared Crozier wonders if Bobby Butler is the new Brandon Bochenski (link). I don’t think Crozier’s point is that Butler can’t be a useful player, but rather that Butler is not the top-six answer in the same way Bochenski wasn’t. It’s an interesting thought, but when Bochenski was shipped out of Ottawa no one was under any illusion he could produce at a high level. Butler still has that potential, although the clock is ticking.

–Sports Illustrated‘s power rankings are out (link), with Ottawa at 23rd. Adrian Dater adds, “Rookie coach Paul MacLean deserves credit for having these guys anywhere near a playoff spot, even at this point in the season. But let’s face it, the Sens aren’t going anywhere for a while. Craig Anderson‘s 3.44 GAA ranks 61st overall, not quite what GM Bryan Murray had in mind when he signed the netminder to a four-year deal late last season.” I’ve been mixed on Anderson as well and didn’t like the length of the contract he signed, but the GAA isn’t just about him.

–The Team 1200‘s Jason York and Steve Lloyd have been tilting at the windmill of head shots for quite some time and I wanted to comment on their opinion. When there’s a questionable hit, York will talk ad nauseum about how the player being hit has the responsibility to protect himself (by which he means it’s his fault) and that has always been the case in the NHL until recently (Lloyd agrees). His historical statement is false, but for the sake of argument I want to accept it and take a look at what he’s actually saying: a player is responsible for his own safety on the ice at all times. On the face of it the dictum seems obvious, but it’s inherently flawed. If that’s the logic behind how the NHL works, then there should be no penalties for checking–boarding, charging, etc. If a player is responsible for his own safety and is assumed to be capable of ensuring it, then an illegal hit is illogical. All hits are legal because the person being hit is responsible. I know neither York nor Lloyd believes that, but as soon as you start make exceptions for certain kinds of hits you have to admit players can’t always protect themselves (and therefore you can’t make blanket statements about who is responsible). The other implication of their stance is that to avoid injury you have to play safe–don’t take a hit to make a play. A final note, York likes to say that split-second decisions are impossible for the person delivering the hit, but if that’s right, then it’s impossible for the puck-carrier to make a split-second decision to avoid a collision (both of these latter points were brought up by Garry Galley on The Team 1200 yesterday, link). I have no problem with York and Lloyd disagreeing with disciplinary decisions or debates (although listening to two people agree with one another makes for a dull discussion), but I’m tired of the faulty logic they use to justify their opinion.

Despite being out played most of the game (giving up 43 shots) the Senators were able to win their second game in a row to close out their November schedule. The team lost both Nikita Filatov (broken nose) and Filip Kuba (upper-body) in the first period, and they were lucky that Colin Greening was not injured on a play in the third. For the box score go here link. A look at the goals:
1. Michalek (Alfredsson, Foligno)
Shoots short-side on the odd-man rush
2. WInnipeg, WheelerAlfredsson baubles the puck in the slot and Foligno is slow getting to the open man on the back door
3. Winnipeg, BurmistrovCowen turns the puck over and Anderson let’s in a bad goal short-side
4. Smith (Condra)Pavelec can’t seal the puck and Smith whacks it in
5. Michalek (Phillips, Condra)
Deflects in the point shot
6. Winnipeg, Kane
Point shot deflects off the back boards and Kane scores on an open net back door
7. Winnipeg, Kane (pp)Karlsson can’t prevent Kane from cashing in a rebound
8. Spezza (Karlsson, Phillips)
Great cross-ice pass gives Spezza the yawning cage
9. Smith (Gonchar, Daugavins) (pp)
Gets the pass in the slot and fires it home
10. Foligno (Winchester, Greening) (en)
Great board work from his linemates gets Foligno the empty-netter

Top-performers:Milan Michalek – scored a couple of goals and played a strong gameZack Smith – also with a pair of goals and strong defensive playChris Phillips – two assists and a team-leading +4

Players who struggled:Jared Cowen – wasn’t terrible, but a team-worst -3 and had a giveaway that lead directly to a goal

-Ian Mendes Tweets that no lineup changes are expected for tonight’s game (link)

-As the Crosby flap dies down #87 now believes Bryan Murray has been after him his whole career. Don Brennan (link) writes that he and his colleagues “remembered only two previous times that Murray said anything negative about Crosby — once after Crosby delivered what Murray thought was a cheapshot on then-Senator Patrick Eaves, and again when Murray thought Crosby was doing too much whining to referees.” If Brennan is correct than Crosby has thin skin. Regardless, now that Murray is no longer commenting and no one other than the Ottawa media is interested in the story I expect it to die shortly.

–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Wayne Scanlan (link) is drinking the Crosby Kool-Aid and doesn’t see the elbow that was thrown at Foligno. I appreciate that Scanlan doesn’t think the incident is a big deal (and he makes a good point about how fans react to star players), but for the sake of argument let’s grant the Foligno got hit with the forearm–the intent was to elbow him in the head. The issue isn’t whether this happens in scrums or not, the issue is head shots. It’s clear from Crosby‘s comments after the incident he’s only concerned with body checks to the head–that’s fine, but that distinction was not being made previously.

-Pierre McGuire talks about the future of the center position in Ottawa (link) and says he thinks Nick Foligno is a better #2 center than Peter Regin (who he see’s as a #3), but going forward it depends on whether Mika Zibanejad is a better center or a winger.

-Rob Brodie writes about Nick Foligno enjoying his time as a center (link)

-ESPN, TSN, and The Hockey News have their power rankings out, with Ottawa 19th, 22nd, 23rd, and 23rd (with ESPN’s Scott Burnside writing “The Senators remain last in the league in goals allowed per game but continue to hang around, putting together a nice 4-1-1 streak to get within a point of the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. Go figure.“)

-Bryan Murray was as bemused as I was by both Dan Bylsma’s and Sidney Crosby‘s comments about Nick Foligno (link), saying “The rules are very clear now. If you fall into a goaltender and touch a goaltender, an elbow to the head and a butt end to the head is fair game. Dan Bylsma said that’s OK for them. Sidney said Nick Foligno is that kind of player. I wish (Foligno) was that kind of player. He got cross-checked, I thought he got a butt end, but it might have been a full elbow. (Chris) Kunitz comes in with a cross-check and the penalties were even. So, (NHL disciplinarian Brendan) Shanahan said that’s a good play. That’s a hockey play. Dan Bylsma said it’s good for them and Pittsburgh were the biggest ones on the head injuries. I’m remiss. I made a mistake. We didn’t have (Chris) Neil and (Matt) Carkner play in the game. We didn’t have enough toughness, so when we play Pittsburgh that’s something you can bring up to me again.”

-Pierre McGuire was asked about the Crosby/Foligno incident while on The Team 1200 (link). He didn’t add much new, saying he didn’t like what Crosby did, but didn’t think Crosby was being a hypocrite (his explanation is that it was the heat of the moment, which I don’t buy as a fact or an excuse).

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch looks at last night’s win (link), reminding us that Jason Spezza ended an eleven-game drought with his two goals. The key quote in the article comes from Paul MacLean however, “A win is a win and that’s a good win. I didn’t like the way we skated and that was indicated by the penalties we took. We took a lot of penalties by not skating and not moving our feet but our penalty killers did yeomans work. Craig Anderson was a big reason why we won.”

-Garrioch floats a rumour that the Sens are interested in Blue Jacket Derrick Brassard (link), who has two years at 3.2 left on his contract. It’s a puzzling theory, given that Peter Regin will be back soon and the organisation has Stephane Da Costa. Picking up Brassard would imply a long-term solution I don’t think the organisation is looking for via trade.

–The Silver Seven‘s Mark Parisi posts his ups and downs for this past week (link). He lists Brian Lee, Chris Phillips, Stephane Da Costa, Colin Greening, and Milan Michalek as having rough weeks. I quibble with Michalek, who while invisible against Pittsburgh was fine last night, but otherwise agree.

–Mark Stone will (as expected) compete for a spot on the World Junior team, as Hockey Canada released its list of invites (link). Matt Puempel was not invited despite being at the summer development camp.

Ottawa beat the struggling Hurricanes tonight in a game that they did not play particularly well in. Craig Anderson was good (not great) in rebounding from his disappointing start against Pittsburgh. Bobby Butler continues to sit in the dog house playing under 7:00 (just above Zenon Konopka). For the box score go here link. Here’s a look at the goals:
1. Spezza (Gonchar, Karlsson)Spezza walks around Tim Gleason and out waits Cam Ward2. Carolina, DwyerScores from an impossible angle; a bad goal given up by Anderson3. Spezza (Gonchar, Karlsson) (pp)
Great cross-ice pass from Gonchar gives Spezza the open net
4. Rundblad (Butler, Konopka) (pp)Konopka creates the turnover and Rundblad‘s point shot deflects in off Pitkanen5. Carolina, StaalPhillips loses his man in front (Staal) who scores off the rebound
6. Smith (Daugavins, Kuba)Smith scores on a scrambled play off a nice pass from Daugavins7. Carolina, Ponikarovsky (pp)Daugavins turns the puck over and in the scramble in front Phillips goes for the body and not the puck and Ponikarovsky cashes in

Players who impressed:Erik Karlsson – picked up a pair of assists and was strong defensivelySergei Gonchar – almost as good as Karlsson in all respectsZack Smith – another strong 200-foot game that included a goal

Players who struggled:Chris Phillips – made key mistakes that resulted in two goals against

No one else struggled particularly, but Jason Spezza lead the team in turnovers. On the positive side, David Rundblad scored his first NHL goal and kept the defensive mistakes to a minimum.

-Here’s the Penguin response to Nick Foligno‘s criticism of Sidney Crosby elbowing him in the head: Crosby said exactly what I expected, denying it was an elbow (link), while Dan Bylsma waxed rhapsodically about everything except the elbow (link)–tacitly accepting it by not denying it, “the score 5-1 and intentionally going into our goalie, he can expect more than Sidney Crosby coming at him and talking to him during the game.” If I accept Bylsma at his word, then other teams can elbow his players in the head if they go after their goaltenders. Crosby‘s denial is ridiculous–anyone watching the replay can see him throwing an elbow. The only point Foligno raised was hypocrisy and Bylsma ignored it and Crosby simply lied. I don’t expect the story to linger, but it was interesting to see how Crosby dealt with criticism.

-The Senators have kept their promise to Nikita Filatov, calling him up to Ottawa and sending Stephane Da Costa down to Binghamton. Just like the last time he was recalled Filatov has played three games in three nights and was hit in the head in his last game (by Robert Bortuzzo). The Ottawa Citizen‘s Ken Warren can’t resist adding his own storyline to things by saying Filatov has looked “uninspired for the most part” (link), a sentiment echoed by no one in the organisation.

-Along with Filatov, David Rundblad returns to the lineup while Brian Lee sits

–Craig Anderson talks about improving after Friday night’s struggles, “You want to get back on that horse. You want to go out there and give the guys that confidence boost. Make that save for them and give them a good game” (link).

-In The Ottawa Citizen‘s Ken Warren article above he talks about Paul MacLean going down the failed road of trying Jesse Winchester as a scoring center. I like Winchester, but he’s not an offensively talented player at the NHL-level.

Binghamton lost 3-2 to Wilkes-Barre, with David Dziruzynski and Josh Godfrey scoring their first goals of the season and Andre Petersson extending his point streak to four games. I didn’t see the game so I’m reliant on reports on it (for the box score go here link, for Joy Lindsay’s game summary go here link).

–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch looks at last night’s game (link), with Paul MacLean saying “Against any team, you have to be ready at the start of the game and by the first timeout it was 4-1. The game was lost in the first five minutes, by not being prepared to play. We didn’t show up tonight. No excuse.” I also learned from the article that I apparently missed a second goal that bounced in off Chris Phillips.

-Garrioch above and Postmedia News (picked up by The Ottawa Citizen, link) quote Nick Foligno calling Sidney Crosby a hypocrite for his blatant elbow to the head last night, Foligno saying “I look up and see it’s him [Crosby], so you’re not going to do anything, then he elbows me in the head. I got a little frustrated he would do something like that. I told him, it is something he preached all summer, that we should limit that, and then he goes and does it. I was a little disappointed.” This behaviour from Crosby is nothing new for anyone who has watched him over his career. He yaps, he runs guys, he’s a dirty player and I don’t think the concussion has changed his style of play.

-Joy Lindsay’s post-game article is here link, where among other things she reports “Captain Mark Parrish tweaked his groin during Friday’s loss, and is unlikely to play Saturday. Alternate captains Tim Conboy (knee) and Jim O’Brien (foot) suffered injuries Thursday and are likely to miss the next few weeks. The B-Sens are now without defensemen Conboy, Josh Godfrey (groin) and forwards Parrish, O’Brien, Corey Locke (hand), Riley Armstrong (back) and Francis Lessard (undisclosed) due to injury. That leaves them without a single veteran in their lineup.”

-Joy also reports that Louie Caporusso and Jack Downing have been recalled